Best movies like Polisse
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The daily grind for the cops of the Police Department's Juvenile Protection Unit - taking in child molesters, busting underage pickpockets, interrogating abusive parents, confronting the excesses of teen sexuality, enjoying solidarity with colleagues and laughing uncontrollably at the most unthinkable moments. Knowing the worst exists and living with it. How do these cops balance their private lives and the reality they confront every working day? Fred, the group's hypersensitive wild card, is going to have a hard time facing the scrutiny of Melissa, a photographer on a Ministry of the Interior assignment to document the unit.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: emotional, disturbing, serious, realistic, sincere, erotic, psychological, social, existential, indie film
Best tv shows and movies like Polisse (2011):
Similar in 90%
Fabienne (2011)
Plot Summary:
Fabienne is a police officer. She does her job well but is gradually growing tired of the dehumanized nature of her work : arresting undocumented aliens day after day does not fit in with her ideals. That's why when, one night, Olga, the Kazakh prostitute she apprehends, begs her to free her not to leave her four-year-old son alone, she hesitates... And why, after Olga has run away and is found dead, Fabienne decides to deal with this matter personally.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 181
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, sincere, realistic, neo noir, touching, bleak
Similar in 89%
Perfect Nanny (2019)
Plot Summary:
When Myriam, the mother of two young children, decides, despite the reluctance of her husband to resume his activity in a law firm, the couple is looking for a nanny. After a severe casting, they engage Louise, who quickly conquers the affection of children and gradually occupies a central place in the home. Gradually the trap of mutual dependence will close, until the tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, erotic, psychological thriller, biting
Similar in 84%
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)
Plot Summary:
Celestine has a new job as a chambermaid for the quirky M. Monteil, his wife and her father. When the father dies, Celestine decides to quit her job and leave, but when a young girl is raped and murdered, Celestine believes that the Monteils' groundskeeper, Joseph, is guilty, and stays on in order to prove it. She uses her sexuality and the promise of marriage to get Joseph to confess -- but things do not go as planned.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: bleak, enigmatic, harsh, cynical, political, art house, biting, social, spiritual, artsy
Similar in 79%
A Thousand and One (2023)
Plot Summary:
Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so they can build their life together. As the years go by, their family grows and Terry becomes a smart yet quiet teenager, but the secret that has defined their lives threatens to destroy the home they have so improbably built.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
The French Detective (1975)
Plot Summary:
When political thugs murder an opponent's volunteer and also kill a cop, chief inspector Verjeat believes the politician who hired them is as guilty as the murderous goon. Verjeat's pursuit of the councilman, Lardatte, gets him a warning from his superiors. When he embarrasses Lardatte while disarming a hostage (the dead volunteer's father), Verjeat is told he's being transferred within a week. He speeds up his hunt for the goon and, with Lefévre, one of his young detectives, he engineers a complicated scheme to buy more time before the transfer. How should Verjeat play out his values of honor and duty?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: crime drama, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective, freeze frame, poliziottesco, french noir
Similar in 85%
The Ciambra (2017)
Plot Summary:
Pio Amato, a 14 year-old member of a small Romani community in Calabria, is in a hurry to grow up. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere and from him he learns how to hustle and how to navigate the streets of his hometown. One night Pio sets out to prove to his brother that he is as good or better than him but, when things go wrong, a series of events will forever change the way he sees the world.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, Brazil, Germany, France, Sweden, USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: neorealism, psychological, tense, suspense, contemplative, sad, art house, crying
Similar in 77%
Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes (1998)
Plot Summary:
A couple of friends work for a taxi driver to rob his passengers, but they feel like they're getting ripped off. They decide to plan their own robberies, but they are amateurs and things don't go too well. One of the youths, Cordoba, whose girlfriend Sandra is pregnant, just wants to get enough cash so they can leave Argentina and get to Uruguay to start a new life. He and his friends plan one last robbery, but things don't go as planned.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: social, hispanic, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 76%
The Young Lieutenant (2005)
Plot Summary:
A rookie policeman from provincial Le Havre volunteers for the high pressure Parisian homicide bureau and is assigned to a middle-aged woman detective.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, bleak, neo noir, light, captivating, detective, rough, suspenseful, no music
Similar in 86%
Making Plans for Lena (2009)
Plot Summary:
Ever since she broke up with Nigel, Lena soldiers on through life as best she can with her two kids. She valiantly overcomes the obstacles put in her way. But she has yet to confront the worst of them: Her unstoppable family has decided, by any means necessary, to make her happy.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 984
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: tense, emotional, psychological, serious, realistic, clever, talky, folk tale
Similar in 79%
The Free Will (2006)
Plot Summary:
After nine years in psychiatric detention Theo, who has brutally assaulted and raped three women, is released. Living in a supervised community, he connects well with his social worker Sascha, finds a job at a print shop and even a girlfriend, Nettie, his principal's brittle and estranged daughter. But even though superficially everything seems to work out Theo's seething rage remains ready to erupt.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 163 min
Plot tags: bleak, psychological, sincere, rough, serious, realistic, depressing, disturbing, controversial, contemplative
Similar in 83%
In Mom's Head (2007)
Plot Summary:
Lulu's mother is depressed and has been as far back as she can remember, Lulu is determined to discover the truth behind her listlessness.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 407
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, captivating, realistic
Similar in 75%
Vera Drake (2004)
Plot Summary:
Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sincere, depressing, bleak, compassionate, thought provoking, contemplative, period piece, grim, realistic, social
Similar in 87%
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
Plot Summary:
The dysfunctional twenty-three years old Sarah takes her six year old natural son Jeremiah from the home of his beloved foster parents with the support of the social service to live with her. Along the years, the boy shares her insane and lowlife style and is introduced to booze and drugs and mentally, physically and sexually abused by Sarah, her lovers and her religiously fanatic family.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, France, Japan
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, rough, serious, depressing, realistic, art house, controversial, stylized, intense
Similar in 85%
Young Adam (2003)
Plot Summary:
A young drifter working on a river barge disrupts his employers' lives while hiding the fact that he knows more about a dead woman found in the river than he admits.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, sexual, enigmatic, neo noir, atmospheric, disturbing, serious, realistic, psychological
Similar in 77%
Joe the King (1999)
Plot Summary:
A destitute 14 year old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother. Petty thefts for food grow into more major takes until he steals a cash box from the diner where he works. Although Joe uses the money to pay off some of his father's debts and to replace his mother's records that his father smashed in a fit of temper, Joe gets no thanks.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: emotional, harsh, tense, rough, grim, realistic, art house, semi autobiographical, serious, gloomy
Similar in 83%
From the Edge of the City (1998)
Plot Summary:
Minority-group Greeks from an outer suburb of Athens struggle with their life on society's fringe and exploitation of one another.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy, neo noir, lgbt cinema, disgusting, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 84%
Pianese Nunzio, Fourteen in May (1996)
Plot Summary:
A young priest crusades against organized crime in his Naples neighbourhood but falls in love with a 13-year old boy. It's the chance the gangsters were waiting for to get rid of the thorn in their side. Will they be able to force the boy to accuse the priest of sexual harassment and have his reputation destroyed?.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 424
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sexual, crying, sexy, gay cinema, baroque
Similar in 81%
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Plot Summary:
A former prostitute discovers that her philanthropic fiance is involved in perversion.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: neo noir, controversial, noir, dark, surreal, disturbing, art house, grindhouse, tense, independent film
Similar in 76%
Money (1983)
Plot Summary:
A forged 500-franc note is cynically passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into the hands of a genuine innocent who doesn't see it for what it is - which will have devastating consequences on his life, causing him to turn to crime and murder.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France, Switzerland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: spiritual, slow cinema, depressing, neo noir, sad, contemplative, anthology, cynical, grim, aesthetic
Similar in 79%
The Thief (1997)
Plot Summary:
In 1946, a soldier fathers a child then dies before its birth. Jump to 1952: on a train, the child and his mother meet a handsome soldier who makes a play for her. She accepts. Posing as a married family, the soldier finds them a rooming house where he becomes everyone's favorite through his good looks and generosity. Meanwhile he gives the boy, Sanya, lessons in life: to fight back, to win at all costs. The child's mother, Katya, is head-over-heels in love with Tolyan, the soldier, but the relationship becomes rocky when Tolyan's true plans for the rooming house become clear. It starts them on a treadmill of flight that risks Katya's life, Tolyan's liberty, and Sanya's trust.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Russia, France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: bleak, realistic, sincere, gloomy, serious, crying, sentimental, atmospheric, thought provoking, touching
Similar in 88%
The Child I Never Was (2002)
Plot Summary:
A serial killer dispassionately discusses the nuts and bolts of his grisly avocation, as well as the youthful traumas which helped to mold him into a psychopath, in this disturbing independent drama from Germany, based on the true story of of Germany's most famous child murderer Juergen Bartsch who, between the ages of 15 and 19, abused, tortured and killed four schoolboys in the Ruhr region of Germany from 1962 to 1966.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, serious, bleak, art house, realistic, gloomy, crying
Similar in 79%
99 Homes (2014)
Plot Summary:
After his family is evicted from their home, proud and desperate construction worker Dennis Nash tries to win his home back by striking a deal with the devil and working for Rick Carver, the corrupt real estate broker who evicted him.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, emotional, sincere, serious, captivating, independent film, realistic, bleak, psychological thriller
Similar in 83%
Pixote (1980)
Plot Summary:
Pixote, a 10-year-old runaway boy, is arrested on the streets of Sao Paulo during a police round-up homeless people. Pixote endures torture, degradation and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of the runaways are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old transvesite hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape where they make their living by the life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, bleak, realistic, rough, atmospheric, serious, political, controversial, hood
Similar in 80%
White Boy Rick (2018)
Plot Summary:
The story of teenager, Richard Wershe Jr., who became an undercover informant for the police during the 1980s and was ultimately arrested for drug-trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 42000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: suspense, hood, disturbing, retro, rough, neo noir, sad, independent film, non fiction, anamorphic
Similar in 83%
The Child (2005)
Plot Summary:
Bruno and Sonia, a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang, have a new source of money: their newborn son.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, emotional, harsh, rough, depressing, art house, independent film, bleak, realistic, aesthetic
Similar in 78%
Salaam Bombay! (1988)
Plot Summary:
Before Slumdog Millionaire came Salaam Bombay!, Mira Nair’s Oscar-nominated drama tells the moving story of life on the streets of Bombay as seen through the eyes of Chaipu, a twelve-year-old boy living rough in the city.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: India, USA, France, UK
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, social, offbeat, depressing, sad, art house, art film, existential, sentimental
Similar in 87%
Lilya 4-Ever (2002)
Plot Summary:
Lilya lives in poverty and dreams of a better life. Her mother moves to the United States and abandons her to her aunt, who neglects her. Lilya hangs out with her friends, Natasha and Volodya, who is suicidal. Desperate for money, she starts working as a prostitute, and later meets Andrei. He offers her a good job in Sweden, but when Lilya arrives her life quickly enters a downward spiral.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 49000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Sweden, Denmark
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: bleak, depressing, sad, harsh, brutal, serious, sincere, dramatic, disturbing, touching
Similar in 82%
The Accused (1988)
Plot Summary:
After a young woman suffers a brutal rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 39000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: disturbing, realistic, poignant, thought provoking, compassionate, tense, rough, controversial, captivating, emotional
Similar in 88%
Hate (1995)
Plot Summary:
Aimlessly whiling away their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz, Hubert, and Said -- a Jew, African, and an Arab -- give human faces to France's immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their social marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point. La Haine means Hate.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 191000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: bleak, black and white, art house, disturbing, hood, political, rough, captivating, neo noir, brutal
Similar in 88%
Conviction (2010)
Plot Summary:
When Betty Anne Waters' older brother Kenny is arrested for murder and sentenced to life in 1983, Betty Anne, a Massachusetts wife and mother of two, dedicates her life to overturning the murder conviction. Convinced that her brother is innocent, Betty Anne puts herself through high school, college and, finally, law school in an 18 year quest to free Kenny. With the help of best friend Abra Rice, Betty Anne pores through suspicious evidence mounted by small town cop Nancy Taylor, meticulously retracing the steps that led to Kenny's arrest. Belief in her brother - and her quest for the truth - pushes Betty Anne and her team to uncover the facts and utilize DNA evidence with the hope of exonerating Kenny.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: Switzerland, UK, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, inspirational, sad, thought provoking, disturbing, intense, motivational, entertaining